N Sriram Balaji thread

[sameerph]

Congratulations to Sriram Balaji for winning a double crown in Thailand futures this week. He won his 7th singles title and 34th doubles title.

These are his singles results this week -

[R1] N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,547) d. Ryota TANUMA (JPN,790) 63 62
[R2] (5) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,547) d. (WC) Punn BODHIDATTA (THA,NR) 61 63
[QF] (5) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,547) d. (2) Antoine ESCOFFIER (FRA,460) 76(2) 62
[SF] (5) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,547) d. (4) Kuan-Yi LEE (TPE,527) 64 63
[F] (5) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,547) d. (1) Seong Chan HONG (KOR,365) 64 76(3)

This was a better quality field than in Indonesia where Sasi won. His last 3 wins were against quality players, particularly the final against the 19 year old Korean who is considered one of the talented upcoming players and has already won 5 futures title this year.

With those title points, Balaji will move back inside top 500. He has only 8 points to defend for the rest of the year. So, good performances for the rest of the year can take him much higher in the rankings.

I think at 26, he can give a shot in singles for couple of years to see where he can go. Else, he can go for doubles where he would be in top 300 now.

[jaydeep]

Really good win against Seong Chan Hong for lifting futures title ... Congrats Bala for your 7th singles and 34th doubles futures title.

[PKBasu]

Beating the 19 year old who was the AO junior singles finalist in 2015 (and ranked junior#2 soon thereafter) is the icing on the cake of Balaji's title run. He has seemed to waver on his commitment to singles this year -- but then hasn't really committed fully to doubles either. Perhaps best to try both properly at the Challenger level over the next 12 months (mixing in a nice dose of Futures too) to see where it goes. Doubles holds more long term promise for him though.

[sameerph]

Only Balaji is playing in singles qualies this week at Ningbo. So, we can discuss this in his thread-

At $125K Ningbo Challenger, China

[Q1] (6) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,442) bye

[Q2] (6) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,442) d. Sheng Hao Zhou (CHN,1065) 16 62 64

He really had to fight all the way against lowly ranked Chinese.

Final qualifying round will be tough.

[Q3] (6) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,442) vs. (1) Yannick Hanfmann (GER,325)

[sameerph]

At $125K Ningbo Challenger, China

[Q3] (6) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,442) l. (1) Yannick Hanfmann (GER,325) 57 06

That is a disappointingly one sided loss for Balaji. After his good run at futures level last month, I was expecting Balaji to step up his game to be good at challenger level but his performances in the last 2 weeks were disappointing.

[sameerph]

Balaji, Sasi and Siddhath played in the qualies of Bangkok challenger this weekend and only Balaji has gone thru to the final qualifying round. Only Bala is playing doubles too this week. So, we will discuss this in his thread.

At $50K(+H) Bangkok challenger

[Q1] (7) BALAJI, N.Sriram (IND,417) d. (WC) KUMTHONKITTIKUL, Worarin (THA,NR) 61 63
[Q1] MUKUND, Sasi Kumar (IND,516) l. WACHIRAMANOWONG, Kittipong (THA,1178) 64 36 36
[Q1] RAWAT, Sidharth (IND,618) d. (WC) PHUNSAWAT, Chanon (THA,NR) 63 61

[Q2] (7) BALAJI, N.Sriram (IND,417) d. ISAROW, Pruchya (THA,1320) 75 57 76(5)
[Q2] RAWAT, Sidharth (IND,618) l. (4) HONG, Seong-chan (KOR,373) 46 06

Next,

[Q3] (7) BALAJI, N.Sriram (IND,417) vs. SUN, Fajing (CHN,622)

The Chinese upset the top seed Marsel Ilhan in Q2.

Also in doubles,

[R1] BALAJI, N.Sriram (IND) / LI, Zhe (CHN) vs. GERASIMOV, Egor (BLR) / KARATSEV, Aslan (RUS)

[jaydeep]

Bala scored a comeback win over his Chinese opponent for qualifying to the main draw ... Next, he is facing top-275 ranked Czech player Safranek.

In the doubles, Bala with Zhe LI lost in the match tie-break against Eastern European pair.

At $50K+H Bangkok-2 Challenger, Kazakhstan

[Q3] (7) N.Sriram Balaji (IND,417) bt Fajing Sun (CHN,622) 46 63 64

[R1] (Q) N.Sriram Balaji (IND,417) vs (8) Vaclav Safranek (CZE,261)

Doubles
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Zhe Li (CHN) l Egor Gerasimov (BLR)/ Aslan Karatsev (RUS) 46 76(0) 3-10

[jaydeep]

Bala scored a superb one-sided win against seeded Czech player losing only 4 games ... Though Safranek is clay court specialist still this is an impressive win ... Next, he is facing Estonian Jurgen Zopp

At $50K+H Bangkok-2 Challenger, Thailand

[R1] (Q) N.Sriram Balaji (IND,417) bt (8) Vaclav Safranek (CZE,261) 64 60

[R2] (Q) N.Sriram Balaji (IND,417) vs Jurgen Zopp (EST,339

[PKBasu]

Very nice win indeed for Balaji. Congrats!

[PKBasu]

Bala scored a superb one-sided win against seeded Czech player losing only 4 games ... Though Safranek is clay court specialist still this is an impressive win ... Next, he is facing Estonian Jurgen Zopp

At $50K+H Bangkok-2 Challenger, Kazakhstan

[R1] (Q) N.Sriram Balaji (IND,417) bt (8) Vaclav Safranek (CZE,261) 64 60

[R2] (Q) N.Sriram Balaji (IND,417) vs Jurgen Zopp (EST,339

I presume this is in Bangkok (Thailand), and not in Kazakhstan.

[PKBasu]

Potentially much tougher opponent for Balaji in R2: Zopp is a former top-100 player (with a career high of 71, who made R2 at the FO and R1 at Wimbledon in 2014, but has since seen his career slide). His highest ranking was achieved in September 2012, so Balaji has a good chance of catching a falling star before he can stand up again.

[jaydeep]

I presume this is in Bangkok (Thailand), and not in Kazakhstan.

Yes, BIG typo ...

[sameerph]

That is a really good win in first round by Balaji after 2 tough wins to qualify in. He is quite capable of pulling off such wins every now and then.
It is a matter of putting in the consistency to do it which can make him a regular challenger level player at least. Next match is going to be tougher.

[jaydeep]

Bala failed to challenge former top-100 player Zopp in his loss.

At $50K+H Bangkok-2 Challenger, Thailand

[R2] (Q) N.Sriram Balaji (IND,417) l Jurgen Zopp (EST,339) 26 26

[sameerph]

With his Uzbek futures runner up points updated, Balaji has broken into top 300 singles ranking for the first time being ranked at a career high ranking of 295. He will move further up next week when his last week's futures SF points will be updated.

He is ranked 231 in doubles too.

So, he will now will be able to play singles and doubles in most of the challengers in Asia. I hope he plays more at challenger level now. Next up for him is Fergana challenger next week.